Listen to the leaves

We’re back at the Winedale place after a long stay in Houston. I’m always a little surprised to get here after weeks of absence and find the place still standing, and mainly in working order.

The stock tank lost a vertical foot of water while we were gone, and the rain gauge is full of spider webs.

Most of the grass that was green when we left is brown now, and the garden looks like a World War I battlefield.

But the edge was off the heat this morning. I stayed fairly comfortable outdoors until almost noon. Would you join me in voting for an early fall? Seems to me we’re due a decent September.

We’ve got a blackjack oak in the front yard and when summer’s beginning to fade the foliage on that tree gets heavy, and thick, and dry. And a gentle breeze brushes those leaves against one another and they produce a rattling sound that I never hear at any other season.

I’m not saying this means an early fall. But I like to hear that rustle because it seems to say we’ve almost made it through another sizzling summer.

We too had a very hot summer up in the North Woods. There was a hint of fall this morning, and according to the Farmers’ Almanac. we could have some snow in mid September. Time to pack up for Galveston if it gets too cold.

Tucker is an early riser like I am so when we stepped outside this morning to greet the kitties and let him attend to his business it was very nice. I love it when it starts getting cooler. Makes me feel good and able to do more outdoors.

My vote is cast for an early fall. Nothing would make me happier. Blessings.

Mr. Hale Posted: “We’ve got a blackjack oak in the front yard and when summer’s beginning to fade the foliage on that tree gets heavy, and thick, and dry. And a gentle breeze brushes those leaves against one another and they produce a rattling sound that I never hear at any other season.”

Better than Robert Frost. What you described is one of the signs that Indian Summer is here. That, along with the deep orange moon we’ve had the last few nights. This is a wonderful time. Despit a number of horribly hot days we stll will face, all around we are seeing signs that cooler weather is on the way. Today I saw a brown bird (a creeper, I think) on a tree trunk. I suspect he is gradually moving south.

BTW: Today I noticed another of my hibiscus that froze last year has just started resprouting.

We made a round trip journey to our country place today. Seems the A/C compressor has gone out and it was way too hot to stay there. We waited outside on the porch for the service guy to arrive and it was pleasant out there..a nice breeze. There’s been no sign of rain in the past couple of weeks but the A/C man says that it looks like the compressor was struck by lightening…don’t know when that happened. Speaking of battlefields, most of my shrubs were skeletonized by grasshoppers this summer, even some of my pear trees. Looks like the aftermath of an atomic bomb…grass is brown, too. We have a blackjack oak that always seems to be suffering. In the years that we’ve lived on that place, that tree never ever has not had half of it’s leaves brown and shriveled. It sets away from the house so I’ve never noticed if it makes a noise. I’ll check it out once the A/C is working again.

I would be content for summer, such as it is, to continue for a few more weeks. Our air conditioner came on twice this week and it was the first time in a month. It’s been unseasonably cool here – no higher than the low eighties. Barely enough to keep the water in the pool swimmable.

I just finished watching a hidef broadcast of a performance of ‘Madama Butterfly’. It was filmed by the local PBS channel during a performance by the San Francisco Opera Company. I didn’t have to pay $100 to sit in the balcony and I was able to sit close to my TV. When it was over, instead of having to drive 25 miles home at 10:30 PM, I just came upstairs to our bedroom. The opera is one I’ve listened to a hundred times in my car and have seen a couple of live productions. It’s far and way my favorite. It’s a powerful story with good music, and for once the scenery was appropriate and not some accountant’s definition of ‘modern’ (translate to cheap).

If they do things like this in Houston, it’s worth checking out, especially if it is an opera you know you will enjoy. Maybe it won’t push Toby Keith off the stage, but I really enjoyed it.

It’s a very comfy 66 deg here at the Swankienda clear skies and a waneing full moon….inside. It’s a sweltering 78 and I’ll go sit on the verahnda when I finish this pleasant project. Very enjoyable stroll with Zoie this ayem with no deer to report. With the cool weather yesterday, no birds bathing in the sprinklers and the flock of hummers have faded down to only two, fighting over the feeders.

The son and his beautiful bride are swoopng in from Virginia this afternoon so we’ll pick them up and if he holds to form, we’ll have supper in Austin for his Tex-mex fix. I spent yesterday mowing the lawn (just around the house, not the whole compound)and smoked a brisket while doing that….those things are sure hard to puff on, let alone light! Anyhoo, the brisket came out pretty good, Zoie approved of the morsel I offered her.

With the pleasant weather here and now, I’ll predict another two inch deep blizzard this winter, so I’ll split some firwood when the kids leave. I got a good start when I did a batch for the brisket. Hope y’all have some of this pleasant weather where ever you are!

Leon, Give me summer! Heat, mosquitos and all. They are my best months with a minimum of allergic rhinitis. Folks with perpetual runny noses understand my comments. Now is weed season. Our ragweed and others should have a great time; dry, hot, etc. Just what the prefer. The rest of my body says it’s more comfortable though.

Ralph W… a touch of fall maybe, Indian Summer, no. Indian Summer (according to the weather bureau) is that wonderful warm & cozy time AFTER the first freeze and before the onset of winter. We could wish for a Indian Summer, but I don’t think any of us are ready for it just yet. How about the middle of October onward?

I smelled Fall in the air early Tuesday morning. It’s still a ways away – but it’s comin’!! I absolutely LOVE Houston in the Fall – so brisk and clear – makes me want to dust the baseboards and wash the windows!!

Mentioning rustling of leaves will normally remind me of trips my spouse and I would take in the fall of each year to a resort in Mexico, an hour’s drive south of Cancun. A place named Akhamal. When we first began to go there in the late ’70′s, it was an isolated diving resort. No newspapers, no TV, no radio. Nothing but a week of scuba diving twice a day, laying on the beach soaking up the sun, relaxing in a hammock at the beach bar sipping our favorite adult drink, than heading to the nearby restaurant for an inexpensive lobster dinner. After dinner sitting on the beach chairs listening to the lapping of the waves and the rustling palm leaves in the gentle breeze. Miss those trips!

Jack — We don’t have a colony of bats anywhere near Winedale, far as I know. At dusk, now and then, a bat or two flitters across the yard but I’ve never seen flights of them. — My spring fishing/camping group, when we’re out in Mason County, always watches for clouds of those Mexican freetails rising out of the cave on the James River. One of the great sights in nature. Five million female bats (I wonder who counted them) flying out of one cave, to return at dawn and go in that smelly place and find the nursing babies that they left behind 12 hours before. Is that wonderful?

About the air potatoes, I’ve never seen them being much of a problem, in the way that kudzu is. In the Old South states kudzu is amazing. You see it covering abandoned farm houses, or implements left in the field, to create green sculptures.

I don’t think even kudzu has ever caused much invasion trouble here in Texas. I used to keep up with a spreading patch of kudzu on the west edge of the Trinity River Bottom. On US 90 near what I think was Dayton. Surely we have a poster in Liberty County. I’d love to hear whatever happened to that kudzu patch on the south side of the highway. Is it still there? Still spreading?

PH Larry: Maybe so, but if we waited until after the first freeze in our area, Indian Summer would fall between Thanksgiving and New Years some years, after New Years other years.

Jim in SR: Our PBS station, the original PBS station, offers a wide variety of programing. They have a lot of music. Especially during pledge week (about a third of the weeks). One I never tire of is Roy Orbison and friends. I once watched Austin City Limits, but they have lost their way and now promote almost anything except what got them going, real country music & Texas blues. The only opera music I listen to involves the 3 Tenors or one of that group. I don’t watch opera as I find it to melodramatic (Reminds me of a Eng. lit. prof. I once had.). Plus, I don’t enjoy watching a bunch of guys jumping around in tights.

Both Hale and Jack in Aspen mentioned the rattling leaves. I would think that almost anyone who has ever laid eyes on an aspen grove noticed that the leaves happily deliver a rousing round of applause for the breeze.

Flatlander that I am, I only recently learned that mother nature designed aspen leaves to begin to quake in the very slightest of breezes. The movement causes the leaves to take up more carbon dioxide from the air. That additional movement maximizes the benefit of the work done by the leaves, and takes greater advantage of their short green lives. How clever. Nature always amazes me.

I finally had an opportunity to ask my grandson what he thought about the story of the mountain lion, and how he saved Hale from the bull after Hale removed the thorn from its paw, as if it were returning a favor.

Now my grandson is 10, which I realize is a bit old for this story, but I wanted to hear what he thought about it. After I told him the story I asked him to assume that it happened to me, and to please tell me what he thought about the experience.

He said, “Actually, it was probably not very smart to try to remove a thorn from a mountain lion’s paw. Mountain lions are BIG and he could have torn you all apart if he wanted to. I don’t think mountain lions return favors. I think only people return favors. Some people do. But I think he could have made the bull run away.”

I thanked him, and then I told him it was just a fictional story. He said, “Good. I thought you were fibbing to me when you said the mountain lion jumped out of the bushes to make the bull run away, just to return a favor. I really think the best idea is for people to leave mountain lions alone.” Amen.

We felt the first glimpse of fall Thurs a week ago, then that Fri & Sat too, as I reported on Monday. This morning was a nice big whiff of it. When there is a goodly puff of breeze, the trees have been dropping significant amounts of browning leaves. Those are the effects of drought in our area. Our trees normally don’t lose any leaves before late Oct, which some start then, and it’s also the earliest time some others might start turning colors. I think we are in for a bad winter again.

Ralph, I agree with you on the opera. None for me. I can’t stand having someone screeching and warbling, making horrible faces like they’re in pain just trying to squeeze a note out, in a language I don’t understand, and even when singing in English can’t understand the words when they warble like that. Ridiculous. There are other enjoyable productions with great costumes, music, and scenery, and without the fake-o drama queens. I like ballet, but not the guys in tights in that either. There are some dyed-in-the-wool opera lovers in our family, but my ears and eyes were not made to appreciate it at all.

I wasn’t familiar with Kudzu vines so I pulled it up to see a picture of what it looks like. Still don’t think I’ve seen it. They say the extract from the plant may work to cure cocaine addiction. So maybe in the long run it is a good thing. Our problem around here has been morning glory vines. They can be pretty invasive.

Leon had mentioned scorpions a while back. This a.m. I was getting dressed but still had on my slippers I put on when I got up. All of a sudden it felt like a hot branding iron hit my foot on top. It was a love tap from a scorpion that was stuck in the front of my slipper. I saved it in case I needed it for identification. But I doctored the bite and hoped the flesh wouldn’t rot out or something ugly go on. Going barefoot seemed to help and about noon or so it quit burning so bad. Guess I will survive. Just watch out for scorpions. Blessings.

My favorite kind of tree might be aspens. Then again, it might be lodgepole pines. Both grow above 7,000 feet and are often accompanied by manzanita, a bush with red berries. Actually, they share the terrain, with aspens in the wetter places, pines in the middle and manzanits on hot south facing slopes. In the fall, the aspens turn yellow. It’s not like New England, with a dozen colors. Just yellow, but every leaf on the tree turns at the same time and when you see several acres covered in aspens, it can be an inspiring sight. If you were ever close to one, you would know immediately why they are referred to as ‘quaking’ aspens.

Cottonwood leaves rustling in a summer nights breeze…wish I had a screened in porch beneath one the rest of my life. We off and left my cottonwoods when we moved across the Panhandle 4 years ago. Now, neighbors have some a half block away, but across the street and I cannot hear them from our bedroom at night. It seems as if I have lost a good friend in some ways.

Ralph W… yes I know you’ll not have much of an official Indian Summer, actually the Panhandle is probably the only part of Texas that does. But I’ve called those wonderful late September to first of December days Indian Summer all my life and only was “enlightened” to the official time of Indian Summer a couple of years ago myself. I’ll join you and we can call them Indian Summer if we so desire and let the weatherman figure out the proper terminology for the time.

Thanks for the interesting article. I always enjoy reading your blog as it reminds me of when we used going to the country store when I was growing up. Of course, this would be one crowded store with all these people! But it sure is fun.

About kudzu…where I grew up in NC, kudzu will take over a hillside or hollow (“holler” for you folks from the hills and mountains). From what I understand, kudzu was originally used for erosion control. On our farm we found that cows love the stuff but it’s sure hard to get rid of.

By the way, I read a Lewis Grizzard piece once back in the ’80s that described kudzu patches being mulched by old Studebaker cars, gasoline, and cinder blocks :-). I’ve never talked to anyone who thought it would just take over an entire farm but have seen some rather large patches.

I totally agree with maryg…you had my vote for early fall on the 30 of June, or sooner!!

I was born and raised in Houston so it’s never too early for fall.

To Sally – hold on girl, I’ve never seen any kind of weather that makes me want to clean or wash windows, LOL!!

Eli – we go to Austin a few times each year to visit our G-son. Will you share the name of your favorite Tex Mex place with us?

One last thing – I felt kind of ‘ignorant’ because I had never seen or heard of kudzu. So I will ‘google’ it up and learn something new ‘gwasshoppah’ (for the younger porch pals – the last word is from the old Kung Fu series).

In the summer two years ago, we re-landscaped our front yard and planted a paper birch tree. It was about six feet tall then and it’s over 20 feet now and still headed upward. None of it’s limbs droop and I have an on-going ‘discussion’ with my wife about whether the limbs will ever droop. She’s convinced they will, but I’m not.

A few years ago we visited Charleston, S.C. We took a tour around the countryside to visit old antebellum homes, some from the 1700′s. I commented to our tour guide about the beautiful lilac wisteria that grew wild…she said, yes it’s pretty but don’t even think about planting any of it as it will take over everything..grows in the trees and kills them. Very invasive. I have sometimes wondered how anything so beautiful could be such a pest. The kudzu of the deep south.

Ralph W: That orange moon has indeed been beautiful. I walked out on the back porch a couple of days ago at daylight, just as the moon was setting. Could not get my camera cranked before it had begun to slip beneath the hills.

Beverly D: My grandson might be a chip off the old block. Problem is, now the old block is more of an old chunk.

Red: Thanks for the compliment the other day, but almost every one of the Porch Pals is a good writer, especially you. I am still wondering just exactly what Circassian walnut looks like.

Eli: My wife and I took our grandson up to your neck of the woods last week to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War. Quite a place, and a far cry from what it was 20 years ago, when it was all located in the Nimitz hotel.

Judy Oakes: A scorpion. eh? We rent our house from scorpions. They hold family reunions in our place between May and September, and dance all night long. I would never dare put on a pair of shoes without knocking them on the floor a couple of times. I also shake out my clothes and towels before use, and I never step barefoot on anything I can see on the floor in dim light.

Two summers ago, a scorpion got into our bed about midnight and waited patiently until I rolled onto my back and laid my left leg down on him. Then he stung me, twice, under my left thigh and calf. That woke me up! I turned on the light and threw the covers back and prepared to commence hostilities, all the while yelling at my sleeping wife to get out of the bed, as the scorpion was still there, holding his sword in the jodan no kamae position, ready to duel. In the end his sword proved to be no match for a high velocity Allen Edmonds loafer.

I was awake the rest of the night, and my leg hurt all day. There is no apparent remedy for a scorpion sting. Ice helps, but nothing gets rid of the pain. So, you have my sympathy. And blessings to you, too.

I agree with you Ralph, ACL got lost shortly after the Armadillo shut down. As to the opera, I dearly love some arias and the only opera I ever attended was “Norma”, very heavy and totally in black&white! Who ever heard of ANY kind of stage production with no color……I’m not sure, but I believe that the cast ALL had Li’l Orphan Annie” appliques on their eyes (00), to fit the rest of the background….but I really enjoyed the movie “Amadeus”!

Oooops! Forgot the weather report…59 deg and clear….very, very pleasant with the moon still on the wain!

The son and his lovely bride came in yesterday and we had an enjoyable afternoon with them. They had been to Dollywood some months back and saw a small assembly of windchimes manufactured by “Music of the Spheres” and were so impressed that they wanted to find a set for their back yard. The factory is in Austin so it was no effort to stop by. The manager of the place took us on a tour of the small facility and he clearly loved his job and product. Now you may think that windchimes are just windchime…..BUT WAIT! as Mr Popiel used to say. These are finely tuned tubes of heavy wall poeder coated structural aluminium. The sounds produced is of such a mellow quality that it’s truly heavenly! There’s quite a variety of sounds…Chinese, Bali, Windsor and so on and so forth… it took a while for them to make thier coice. But the entire staff that were there working friday, were friendly and willing to answer any question asked. They were packing an order to be shipped to a customer on the east coast and it was two of their largest assemblies. The longest tube was about eight feet long with an approximate outside diameter of twelve inches. Along with that order was a large and varied number of their medium and small chimes. The person that placed the order was obviously well to do.

Ahhhhh Kudzu and red mud what Mississippi is famous for! When I was growing up in Memphis, we could always identify a Mississippi car. The bottom would be covered in red dusty/mud and the kudzu vines would be flowing from the rear like cans on a wedding car. Memories! Smile.

Red3fish: No doubt the opera, the ballet and perhaps the symphony, are acquired tastes, but I’m guessing Houston, and certainly Dallas, have fine representatives of all three. What may be less publicized is who the ticket buyers are. It may not be something they want to boast about or even admit to.

That’s OK. I usually conceal my disdain for country music. Of course, I make an exception for Willie and I used to be a big fan of Eddie Arnold and Slim Whitman.

Sandra O’Connor: The more I learn about the drivilistas, the more curious I get. Now, I’m trying to make the connection between Memphis and what you often write. It’s a delightful mystery. I get another clue whenever you write. That’s often true with the other frequent commenters too. Of course, we have already figured LH out. Fewer surprises there. Just Kidding, LH. Your predictability, such as it is, doesn’t diminish the value of what you write.

Sandra O’Connor: What a perfect description! I can almost smell the oil dripping on the hot manifolds. When I first started covering Mississippi (sales), many roads were not paved. A lot of the roads were nothing more than deep red ruts. I’d see cars like you described everywhere, especially in small towns. If Mississippi recieved normal rainfall or better, everything was green except that red dirt.

While they still have a lot of Kutzu and red mud, Mississippi has a very good road system today thanks to all the natural gas.

Boggy said-”Catalpa leaves falling and the first cotton wagons heading to the gin were and always will be synonimous to me”. Brought back memories too. We had a big Catalpa tree in the corner of the chicken pen at the house where I grew up. The seed pods were neat. In the fall the pods turned colors. The leaves were huge and provided shelter to birds.

And oh those cotton wagons filled to overflowing with cotton picked by hand until the later years. What a beautiful sight. We had two gins right in town and maybe half a dozen more in nearby communities. I have a picture of one of those high sided cotton wagons with a black man in the seat driving the mules to town. Some came with tractors or trucks but a lot were still pulled by animals.

Kevin-Hope we don’t have an invasion of scorpions. Cortisone cream helps with the burning, itching. We lived in an almost new duplex once that had an invasion. But I found their entrance point, plugged it and no more problems.

Jack in Aspen-Check with Wildseed out Eli’s way and they can tell you if bluebonnets will grown in Colorado. Blessings.

Kevin: Circassian walnut is from Turkey. The finest burled is unbelievable in its bueaty. It is used for very expensive gunstocks and wood products such as trim in those half million dollar cars. Custom gunmakers get the blanks from companies like Denli. Some buy the whole logs. Much goes to England for the expensive custom shotguns and rifles as well as RR and Bentley. I gave a lot of thought to buying a shotgun with such a stock once but I couldn’t justify spending more for a shotgun than a very, very, nice automible. If I had been single or w/o kids, I would have bought it because it is akin to buying an expensive painting.

Aspen Jack: You might see if you can get some seeds for ‘fireweed’ that grows in Alaska. It’s a lupine too and is often found growing profusely on ground that has been cleared by fire (hence the name fireweed). Good luck in your efforts.

Jack in Aspen: If you have the bluebonnet seed there, I’d say go for it. Lupines love high altitudes better than low is what I always heard. They don’t do too well at all on coastal plains down here, but do better the higher the altitude goes in Texas. My thought is that it might be important that your selected site have enough hours of direct sun each day of growing season. I believe when first planting (as opposed to plants coming up from previous season seed), the seed has to be soaked before planting. Flag where you plant them so you can remember not to mow over that patch too early!

I hesitate to mention, for fear of being accused of practicing medicine, that several stiff shots of a single malt scotch whiskey, while no cure, will go a long way toward alleviating the pain of the sting of a scorpion, a bee, an asp, or a sharp reproach from the woman in your life. But there is no perfect medicine, so be aware of possible side effects such as slurred speech, a staggering gait, uncontrollable weeping, and a ferocious hangover, which might then require the application of a dose of the universal medicine, i.e. two aspirin, which is probably what should have been taken in the first place in lieu of the single malt.

Well now, there are five different species of bluebonnets. The Big Bend Bluebonnet is probably your best bet ’cause it does like higher elevations and mountain slopes, it is Lupinus havardii. Years ago a whole bunch of old ladies in tennie shoes dang near went to war over which species of bluebonnet was gonna be declared the state flower of Texas. A good natured drunk who represented Ft Bend County in the Texas Halls of Congress in those days of yore sobered up for a bit and suggested that the entire genus, Lupinus, be declared the state flower and so it came to be and he celebrated by gettin’ drunk. Congress hasn’t accomplished very much since.

Now then, elevation vs altitude ? I always though they were different but the big book says they are interchangeable. I always though that altitude was measured by how high you were ( no double meaning intended ) when your feet ain’t touchin’ the ground and elevation was measured by where you were a standin’ with your feet on the ground. The high point on this farm is a hill top at 430 feet, the low point is in the creek bed at 340 feet of elevation, not altitude. Thats a 90 foot drop. Its a good thing that it is a gentle slope from high altitude to low elevation or else I’d not be able to drink at all.

Jack in Aspen: After first soaking the seeds in scalding water, then putting them into the deep freeze, I managed to coax one small patch of Texas Bluebonnets (lupinus texensis) to bloom here in NC many years ago. They like an alkaline soil and the soil here is too acidic,so there’s prep work involved there too. Good luck!:)

Aspen Jack: Exercise caution if you try to introduce the Texas Bluebonnet to the higher climes of Aspen. They may turn out to be an invasive species like kudzu and air potato. The natives might not like it if the mountain tops turned blue instead of white. They don’t like Texans all that much anyway and you don’t want to tee them off any more than they already are. They might retaliate by raising the price of lift tickets.

Maybe we can combine several of the techniques suggested here for getting bluebonnets to grow. We could start by asking PH Larry to keep the seeds in his garage all winter. That would take care of the freezing part. Then, the seeds could be soaked in hot scotch whiskey (I think boiling it would likely reduce the proof too much) Finally, each seed could be planted with a small plug of Beech-nut or Day’s Work. If the seeds didn’t grow, at least any scorpion stings incurred along the way would be painless.

COMMON NAMES: English walnut, Persian walnut, European walnut, Circassian walnut

What beautiful wood and I can see why it is prized for expensive cars. Everyone, sometime in his or her lifetime, should experience a truly beautiful work of art such as a handcrafted car. Even if it is only to ride in one. For that brief time, you will feel like a sultan (ess – ette?). Smile.

I am a little curious as to what causes the wavy looking lines along with what appears to me to be

something like burl wood. White burl wood being my favorite. Of course, the wood mellows over the years to a lovely sort of yellowish color. Kind of like me. Growing old together. Smile.

PS Aren’t we lucky to have our own private walking encyclopedia? Red makes me work each time he informs us of so many things! My desk is covered with dictionaries, the computer’s information centers are at the ready, and my thesaurus’s spine is in trouble. Long live our RED, who won’t be wearing our regulation Drivelista tee-shirt, but the one that says…Master Drivelista. Smile.

Thanks to everyone for the scorpion sting remedies. I think I will begin with John G’s remedy, which is to take a couple of shots of single malt Scotch. Next, I will try Rounder’s wet tobacco, and while I am waiting the 15 to 20 minutes he recommends, I will take a couple of additional shots of John G’s remedy. Finally, I will apply the cortisone Judy Oakes recommends, followed again by a couple of shots of single malt scotch. By the time I have done all that, even if it still hurts, I won’t care!

MCM: Thanks for the links to the Circassian walnut photos. What beautiful wood. Ralph W, thanks for the great description. I knew that some stocks of expensive shotguns and double rifles are made of Circassian walnut, but I do not believe I have ever actually seen it. I could not have told you exactly what it looks like for the same reason I cannot tell you what Miss August looks like. I can’t have it, so I am better off not to be salivating over it.

Most of the walnut (and other species) burl that you see, e.g. in cars, is veneer, very thin layers of wood. (Its also likely to be plastic in most everyday cars.) If any of you woodworkers want the best veneer source, this is it:

The reason gunstock burl is so expensive is that its extremely hard to work. The swirls are the wood’s grain and confused grain is not kind to tools or woodworkers. In the page linked above, click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Burl is caused by a number of things including wasp stings (for sticky sap=nest glue), a virus or multiple limbs trying to grow from one spot. A tree that grows suckers from the same spot over and over will form burl wood. If you look at a Mexican Sycamore, the large lumps on the trunk are burls.

Frank, you’re right about the cause of burl. I’ve been told that a lot of the burl grain in oak and mesquite is caused by mistletoe. It’s a parasite and the roots invade the wood fibers, and as the tree gets older the burl forms around them.

I’ve never worked with Circassian walnut. I don’t hang around gun stores, so I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any of it.

However, I did make a small occasional table out of English walnut. The wood is surprisingly affordable if you’ve finished putting your kids through college and have some discretionary income.

Sandra: Are you sure Red can walk? It seems possible he is little more than a giant head, holding most of the world’s knowledge, with an electrode or two connected to the Internet. I’d want to hear from his wife before I give him credit for walking around with the weight of what he knows on his shoulders.

Kevin: I have no idea if you have ever tried Scotch but I will give you my opinion. Put me in the camp of those who would prefer getting popped by a stinger lizzard to drinking Scotch. I have tried Scotch 3 times: With Coke – Best, but not good at all. With water – Horrible. More recently Johnny Walker (Blue label, this was supposed to be something wonderful) on the rocks. That was, to me, the worst of all. I will give the Scotch folks two things: (1) Some bottles have nice art work. (2) I tip my hat to anyone who can get people to pay outlandish prices for something that taste worse than the most horrible tasting medicine you have ever taken. Maybe it would taste better if I had swallowed the stuff, but I spit it out every time due to its taste.

I have a big old Black Walnut tree in my yard that several woodworkers have been trying to con me out of for years. As Leon will tell you, it could be possibly good for fishing(My dad told me about the tow sack trick too[unverified]). I have made several walking sticks out of trimmed branches and they are highly sought after at the Cut-N-Shoot flea markets…

A21CAV – Frank – Thanks for the info on the wood. In addition, you sure hit a nerve with me when you said you miss your workshop. I do not know what kind of strange denial I live in but I miss my shop, too. Not ever having had one, I am delusional. There must be another life that I have lived because the smell of new wood sends me over the top and dreaming of something I know not. I can run my hands along fine wood ’til the cows come home and never want to stop. Pictures of old barns, I could look at for hours on end. To my knowledge, there are no wood workers in my family. Some say my Grandpa built his house, but I doubt it…he was more of the watch and see kinda person. I do have a small collection of tools but, honestly, not a clue how to use them except for the most minor of things. For that, I would gladly have grown up a boy…otherwise, I am pretty happy that I am a girl. Smile. It is too bad I never met a guy in my lifetime who was a wood worker; I would have been in Heaven on earth.

Red, you made me smile with the use of “tennie shoes” – haven’t heard that exact term in years.

Then I noticed that in your analysis of altitude vs. elevation definitions, you were dusting off my vocabulary for me. I agree, I always thought altitude and elevation were different, for the reasons you give. I view my usage of “altitude” as incorrect, and should have been “elevation” as it is what I really meant. Curious that the dictionary says they are interchangeable as I would have sworn them to not be. Thanks for the interesting comments, as usual.

Ralph, first the opera, now we agree on the scotch whiskey. Can’t stand it. Can’t stand gin either. In younger days I might have had a small Jack Daniels & Coke on rare occasion, but never Johnny Walker. Would be okay to pour it over a spot in need of some doctoring, though.

Beverly D: I have a recipe for what I think Scotch taste like, 1/2 cup of original Listerine + 1/2 cup of water from a peat bog + 1 1/2 teaspoons of paregoric, stir well. I agree on the gin as well, but I believe Scotch is worse. Either one might taste better drank from one of Red’s tennis shoes, but I’m not trying it!